2025 Early Perseid Meteor Composite

A composite image showing seven Perseid meteors, including one fireball, captured in a series of photos on the night of July 31-August 1st (11:45 pm to about 1 am). After moonset, a weak red aurora glowed on the northern horizon over the Ottawa River, with Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies nicely visible. I was surprised by how many early Perseids were caught, about two weeks ahead of the shower peak. Not shown, but the session also captured two alpha Capricornid meteors (shower peak July 30), one Southern delta Aquariid (shower peak July 31), and one Eta Eridanid (peak August 7). This may be my best capture of the Perseids this year, as wildfire smoke is now obscuring the local night sky, and moonlight is increasing as the shower peak approaches.

Nikon D750, Sigma 14-24 mm lens at 14mm, f3.5, 13 sec exposure, ISO 6400

Base image is a stack of 40 exposures (Starry Landscape Stacker) to reduce noise. Seven Perseid meteor streaks are superimposed after polar rotation in Photoshop.